As everyone knows, homeschooling just doesn’t work. While you might end up smart, the lack of developed social skills will surely cripple you for life. While all you crazy and proud “homeschool graduates” out there might count people like the founder of the Human Genome Project and the youngest MIT professor ever among your ranks, you don’t have any accomplishments to speak of, right? Oh, be quiet, Einstein doesn’t count — he was only homeschooled for a year. We’re talking about celebrities — it’s not like Jennifer Love Hewitt was homeschooled.
Right?
10. Jennifer Love Hewitt
Yes, at least until she started at Lincoln High School after moving to Los Angeles with her mother, the star of I Know What You Did Last Summer was homeschooled. Despite this obvious setback, she managed to be the hot girl at every party, and lasted longer against a serial killer than even Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
9. Doctor Condoleeza Rice
Being the first black National Security Advisor is only the accomplishment Rice is most known for — she’s also been voted “Most Powerful Woman in the World” twice, and was the first black, female, and youngest provost of Stanford University during her tenure. And she was homeschooled until she was ten — largely because she lived in Birmingham, Alabama in the 1960’s.
8. C. S. Lewis
Before he wrote Baby’s First Lord of the Rings, and became an English professor at Oxford University and a member of the Inklings, C S Lewis (“Jack” to his friends) was homeschooled. While perhaps living up to the stereotype of the “religious fundamental homeschooler,” particularly in his writing, Lewis has nevertheless fully established his place in history as a beloved author of children’s literature.
And anyone who doubts the social skills of homeschoolers should hear this story: while fighting at the Battle of the Somme in World War I (also known as one of the bloodiest military operations in history), Lewis made a pact with another cadet that, if either of them died, the other would take care of their family. When his friend was killed in action, Lewis kept his promise — caring for his friend’s mother for the next thirty-three years and…oh wait, they slept together? That’s not really the point we were trying — and he still called her mother?
Crap. Moving on.
7. Erwin Schrodinger
Though most famous for coming up withdisturbing analogies about cats, Schrodinger also contributed “Schrodinger’s Equation,” which describes how the quantum state of a physical system changes with time (obviously). He also won the Nobel Prize for physics, and was homeschooled until the age of ten.
It might be worth noting that, although he’s most famous for the “Schrodinger’s Cat” Experiment (in which a cat is both alive and dead at the same time), he actually didn’t think much of quantum mechanics, and that analogy was an explanation of why he thought the theory didn’t make sense.
6. Tim Tebow
Known for his “unorthodox” play style and frequent prayer, Tim Tebow has quickly drawn both praise, and controversy, for his role as quarterback for the Denver Broncos and New York Jets. But that’s now: back in 2007, Tim Tebow became the first home schooled athlete to win the coveted Heisman Award. He was happy to break stereotypes, saying, “a lot of times people have this stereotype of homeschoolers as not very athletic – it’s like, go win a spelling bee or something like that – it’s an honor for me to be the first one to do that.”
Living up to his word, Tebow has given major support to the so called “Tebow Bill,” which would see Alabama following several other states by allowing homeschooled athletes to play for their local high school teams.
5. Frank Lloyd Wright
Without a doubt the most influential architect in American History, Frank Lloyd Wright was, in fact, homeschooled. His mother began by bringing home so called “Froebel Gifts,” blocks designed to help children learn on their own. Though Wright eventually attended high school, it is not known whether he graduated, and he dropped out of the University of Wisconsin after a single year.
4. Margaret Atwood
She’s a novelist. Come on, you’ve totally heard of her. She’s written a ton of poetry. She may be Canadian, but she totally won the Arthur C. Clarke Award! You know… Arthur C. Clarke? He wrote… okay, fine. Atwood was homeschooled until sixth grade, and now she’s a big deal.
In 2009 wrote a book called “The Year of the Flood” that depicts a dystopian future, for which she created her own environmental religion (which she now follows).
3. Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi occupies a strange place in geek culture, because no matter what kind of stuff you’re into, she’s probably in some of it. Like sci-fi? She’s in Star Trek. Disney Movies? She was a hyena in The Lion King. Movies that should have won an Academy Award but didn’t? The Color Purple. Movies that shouldn’t have won an Academy Award, but did? Ghost (no offense to Swayze, but come on). Obscure pop culture trivia? She’s one of a very select group of entertainers to win an Oscar, a Grammy, an Emmy, and a Tony. And she has a Hollywood Star on the Walk of Fame. And she won four People’s Choice awards. And a British Academy of Film award, but it’s not like that really matters.
And, yes, she was homeschooled.
2. Thomas Alva Edison
We’re not going to waste your time by explaining who Thomas Alva Edison is, but we will blow your mind with this little story: Edison actually began his schooling normally, attending a public school when the family workload permitted, but he was eventually driven out by the age of twelve for being “addled.” In fact, his teacher told his mother that young Thomas was not teachable.
At that, his mother took him home and began teaching him herself. Edison later stated, “my mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me, and I felt I had something to live for, someone I must not disappoint.”
And we’re sure he didn’t, because he invented everything.
1. Julian Assange
We’re going to pose a question here: who undermines major governments using little understood technology, speaks in a funny accent, and goes on the run? If you answered “James Bond Villains”, you’re right. But if you add “homeschooled” to that list…well, you might still get “James Bond Villain”. We’ll know for sure when Skyfall comes out.
Either way, you could also answer Julian Assange, the eccentric Wikileaks founder who lived in his own personal villain layer before going on the run to hide from all the governments, and who was homeschooled for several years while traveling with his parent’s touring theater company.
Which makes him a Bond Villain, a homeschooler, and Dick Grayson (the first Robin). Except with, somehow, even more death threats.
27 Comments
johnnycanuck, I was thinking the very same thing as I read through these comments and came upon that one by “ifoundyou”.
Julian Assange wasn’t really homeschooled; he just went to a lot of different schools. I recommend the new film “Underground: The Julian Assange Story” starring Rachel Griffiths and Anthony LaPaglia. It depicts about year of Assange’s life when he was 17 and first started hacking, and gives some insight into why he does what he does. His mother has said publicly that it is an accurate portrayal of him at that age.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2357453/
A lot of us have been raised that this is the “normal” way to educate our children. I was. I thought Homeschooling was not normal. Then I started to really thing about how I defined normal. Put them on a bus with a ton other kids, to a school will they will sit all day with up to 30 (if not more kids), learning from not the best curriculum, which may not even be appropriate for their own learning style. And that doesn’t matter so much anyway, because from what I witnessed in my son’s class, the teacher is so wrapped up getting all those kids to follow instruction (with a few taking most of her attention likely), to really focus on academics anyway. Most of the time the worksheets (which were very outdated). were sent home to be done at home. That, combined with the playground bullying I saw, made me wonder…why we all think this is more normal then educating our young children with individualized curriculum, while using co ops and outside programs to really enrich them in other subjects as well.. opportunities .that they would never be exposed to within the walls of school? And then we refer to these kids as “sheltered”…. I am considering Homeschooling after actually thinking about what it means beyond the bandwagon of perceptions about it.
I have read quite possibly 95% of the top tens on this website and out of all the people who wrote. The person who wrote this quite possibly the biggest Morin I have ever trad from on this website. I have been homeschooled I know dozens of people who have been schooled and have all had great social life, succefuland their has been many famous people who have been home schooled you idiot. Get this Morin off or delete this post because this Morin does not have a single clue what he is talking about
I hope you are trying to be ironic
LOL … The comment must have been written on purpose by someone who is opposed to home schooling. However, that’s okay, I know people out of public schools whose spelling and grammar are far worse.
I don’t think you were homeschooled ifoundyou; because if you had been, you would have used proper spelling and grammar.
Or its evidence in favor of homeschooling being a lousy alternative to public (i.e. actual) schooling. What qualifies mom to teach?
“…he invented everything.”
…say textbooks. He was a businessmen who stole many of “his” inventions both from his employees and through plain old patent-grabbing. His biggest invention is the industrial research lab which he used to take credit for his colleagues’ work.
If you want a true scientist and a far more important inventor, look up Nikola Tesla.
I was homeschooled for 5 years, and I am definitely not “socially-crippled”. It depends on the person. Certain people may be set back by homeschooling, bu t the majority thrive.
Actually Edison didn’t invent everything. He was a good business man who had workers that improved OTHER peoples inventions, On top of being a scumbag.
Speaking of Edison and the people he lied to and cheated on happy birthday Nikola Tesla a man way ahead of his time.
I went to public school and I’m a social retard! I should’ve been homeschooled!
While I am not at all surprised that Tim Tebow was homeschooled, Julian Assange is a different story.
How is Julian more successful than Edison??? makes no sense
And how is Assange more successful than Edison????????? that doesnt compute
Homeschooling isn’t near as bad as this guy makes it seem. Social skills of homeschoolers can easily exceed those of public-schoolers if home-schooled correctly. They don’t necessarily just learn at home and aren’t as sheltered as they sound. Some travel a lot and learn hands-on which is the best way to learn. I’ve never been homeschooled but I’ve learned a lot about it and I’ll tell ya it stomps public schools in the dirt as far as actual teaching goes.
Being around adults all day can improve a child’s vocabulary greatly and teach them how to converse like an adult
Hey, this is a pretty offensive article! I was homeschooled my whole life untilI went to college when I was fourteen. And I have friends too! Come on guys, you can’t let a few imbalanced kids destroy the reputation of homeschooling! Besides, public schools are nothing to be proud of…
I don’t know what to tell you. This was written by a homeschooled author. Maybe he will chime in on this.
I don’t know what to tell you either. Why are you offended?
The author was being sarcastic about homeschooling being bad. Or that’s what I interpreted. All these individuals presented are successful people who were homeschooled. I can’t say it’s true all of the time, but homeschooled kids generally have an attentive parent at home who takes personal responsibility and interest in the education of their child, whereas a lot more public schooled children do not have parents that are as involved with their education.
Couldn’t find a worse picture of Dr. Rice, could we?
Y’know. I agree. That isn’t flattering. I am going to overrule the editor on this one and put a new image up. But try doing a search yourself. There are a startling number of bad photos. The woman, while a wonderful person I’m sure, is not photogenic.
Well, there’s these from Wikipedia:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Condoleezza_Rice_cropped.jpg
http://www.state.gov/cms_images/2005_03_01_rice_itn_int_600.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Barak_-_Rice_2007_08_01_israel3_600.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Rangin_Dadfar_Spanta_et_Condoleezza_Rice.jpg
There’s also a bunch on Google images, but I see it was changed already. Thanks. That first picture made her look like Satan incarnate!
Incidentally, while Clive Staples Lewis was raised in a Christian home, he became an atheist at age 15 (1913) and remained such throughout WW1 and during the first half of his time with Mrs. Moore. He called her “mother” because his own mother had died early in life.
It is likely, however, that they were lovers. And while it may seem odd to call your lover “mother”, it’s not unheard of, especially among people of that era. Sort of an affirmation of the fact that you call them “mother” so that they’ll let you be “father”. Think of Ronald Reagan calling Nancy Reagan “mommy”. It’s a term of affection from a past generation. In 100 years, people might think it’s weird that we called our significant others “baby”.
I didn’t know this: Media coverage of C.S. Lewis’ death was almost completely overshadowed by news of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which occurred on the same day, as did the death of Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World.
Yeah. There’s a book about it called “Between Heaven and Hell” by Peter Kreeft where the 3 of them meet and talk in the afterlife before heading to their eternal destinations.